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At town hall, Chris Christie pins blame for slow Sandy recovery on feds

'FEMA is the new F-word'; Christie blames feds for slow Sandy rebuildAt a town hall held in a Port Monmouth, a section of Middletown, New Jersey hard hit by Hurricane Sandy, Gov. Chris Christie repeatedly and forcefully blamed the federal government for the hurdles residents are facing in their efforts to rebuild their homes. Christie faulted the federal flood insurance program for shortchanging policy holders and not meeting with homeowners in mediation; the Obama administration's refusal to fund aid for owners of second homes; Congress for delays in passing the aid package and federal bureaucrats for requiring extensive environmental and historical reviews of homes being rebuilt and he called FEMA "the new F-word." (video by Brian Donohue / The Star-Ledger)

Not that long ago when Gov. Chris Christie walked to center stage at a town hall meeting, he was the rising star of American politics.

He was heading into a re-election campaign and was expected to trounce his Democratic opponent. He was widely considered a top GOP contender in the 2016 presidential race. And when he held a town hall he was greeted by a loud and adoring audience.

This time, nobody asked him if he was going to make a bid for the White House.

Instead, at the first town hall meeting he has held since controversy engulfed his administration over lane closures at the George Washington Bridge and the distribution of Hurricane Sandy aid, a woman in the audience held up a sign that said "Resign Christie." The sign was taken away by Christie aides, but she simply pulled another from her jacket.

At one point, while addressing a Sandy-related concern, an audience member shouted, "Answer the question."

This was the governor’s 110th town hall meeting and Thursday’s audience at the VFW Hall in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown was for the most part polite and respectful. One woman complimented him on his weight loss, and his comment to a toddler that he would try to get her back into her home drew applause.

Hurricane Sandy victim: Christie staff confiscated my 'resign Christie' signsIsabel Newson, a Hurricane Sandy victim still displaced from her Keansburg home 16 months after the storm sat quietly throughout Gov. Chris Christie's town hall meeting in Port Monmouth holding a "resign Christie" sign and was repeatedly approached by a police officer about the sign. Newson said the sign was the third she brought with her to the event - the other two were confiscated by members of the governor's staff, she said. (video by Brian Donohue / The Star-Ledger)

But this time the Republican governor spent much of the time on the defensive, telling Hurricane Sandy victims the federal government is to blame for their woes.

Christie kicked off the event by telling residents there’s not enough federal aid to cover all the damage the state suffered. "Not everybody can be made whole," he said.

Jessica Sickler, a 37-year-old Port Monmouth resident who has been displaced from her home since Sandy, asked the governor what he was doing to help people fighting paltry flood insurance settlements since there wasn’t enough grant money to go around.

Sickler said she received less than half of her policy through the National Flood Insurance Program, which is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"FEMA is the new F word," said Christie, who added that the state asked the federal government to participate in a voluntary arbitration program, but they refused. "The best that we can do is advocate for you and we will," he said.

"We’re stuck dealing with a federal system that is broke," he said. "The fact is though that they don’t have, in my opinion, the first idea of what they’re doing. And a disaster of this scale is not what they were built for." The governor fielded questions on family law and other topics, but nobody asked the governor about the lane closures. Washington Post reporter Robert Costa posted on Twitter that he asked Christie after the meeting about not getting a question on the bridge controversy. Costa said Christie told him, "People care about real problems."

A member of a local VFW stood up and told Christie he had an important request: "When you go home tonight, would you please destroy all of your Bruce Springsteen CDs? He’s not a friend of yours."

Springsteen recently appeared on late night TV, where he performed a parody of "Born to Run" with Jimmy Fallon called "Governor Chris Christie’s Fort Lee, New Jersey Traffic Jam." Christie said he still hoped someday he and Springsteen would be friends.

"I think we get attached to certain people as youngsters, which I did, it’s hard to kind of let that go," Christie said. "So you are probably giving me wise, sage counsel that I should accept, but my heart keeps telling me not to."

Asbury Park vet to Chris Christie: 'Destroy your Bruce Springsteen CDs'A member of VFW Post 1333 in Asbury Park tells New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie - a huge Bruce Springsteen fan - to destroy his Springsteen CD's. The request came during a town hall meeting in Port Monmouth, NJ five weeks after Springsteen appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and lampooned the scandal surrounding Christie's administration closure of George Washington Bridge local lanes in September, 2013. (Video by Brian Donohue / The Star-Ledger)

Debbie Fortier, a 53-year-old from the Baywood section of Brick Township, said she was on the waiting list for a state-run rebuilding grant. When Christie responded that his administration plans to funnel more money into that program to help homeowners like her, Fortier came back at him with: "I can’t wait."

"The point is that I don’t want to wait either. But the fact is that I can’t wave a magic wand and make this happen," he said.

Democrats sharply criticized the governor after the meeting, saying he was trying to deflect blame from his administration onto the federal government.

They pointed to complaints about poor communication, lost paperwork and inept management involving state-run housing grant programs, as well as the quiet firing of a major Sandy contractor.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-9th Dist.) said the federal government cannot be blamed for those issues.

"More than a year after the storm, there are still folks not back in their homes that deserve answers," Pascrell said. "It’s time for Governor Christie to take responsibility for his administration’s mismanagement and do what’s right by the people of New Jersey."

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who started drumming up support for his "Sandy Bill of Rights" with a tour of hurricane-damaged communities this week, said Christie’s "attempt to blame the federal government was a smokescreen.